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The Happiness Project

I recently read the book The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin. It was a fabulous book! I didn’t pick up the book because it was a bestseller or a “Heather’s Pick” or because I am not happy person. In fact, I am often told I am a ball of energy. As I read the book I noticed little ways that you can rephrase sentences to sound more optimistic and not have little arguments with people. Aswell as how to get more done in a day and stay focused. Of course the obvious one on the list was: exercise. As I often say in my blogs after a run, “I felt SO much better after that run!” But, I can’t deny the truth- I almost always feel 100% better after a run. Like today’s run- I got out for the first time since I left the hot sun in the south and was a little nervous for my lungs to run in the cold. But when I got going I loved the smell of the crisp air, the changing colours of the leaves as they laid on the concrete, and that opening scene of a movie feeling as you are running and smiling through a fall city run. A la Kristin Davis in Sex and the City or Jennifer Aniston in The Break-Up. As I was running I felt like a stronger athlete post half-marathon. I think it’s because once you know that you can run a half marathon in a race and not just training your mind set changes. You start having an unstoppable feeling where you don’t question your ability. You know you can do it. If only we had this feeling all the time- imagine the things we could accomplish!

Be Fearless.

Gretchen Rubin talks about having your own commandments in your life to identify your resolutions. Being fearless is something that I have found myself constantly trying to strive for. It’s so easy to put on a smiling face and pretend that you are the most confident person in the room but, if you don’t believe it with all of your heart- it’s not going to do you very much good. You have to be confident in yourself and your talents to be honestly fearless.

As I was running with a permanent smile on my face today, I found my teeth starting to feel like I should be a spokesperson on a sensodyne commercial. The cold wind started to make my teeth hurt, I thought to myself, “should I not smile while I run?!” And then I instantly said, “No, of course not!” I mean it takes less muscles to smile then it does to frown. Is this being lazy? I’m not even going to answer that because it’s a pretty obvious answer. Ok, no. No, it’s not lazy- it’s positive! So, it’s time to buy a costco sized tube of sensodyne!